Office Depot's new marketing campaign supported by Edelman and Burson-Marsteller

DELRAY BEACH, FL: Office Depot has launched a new integrated marketing campaign in support of its re-introduced slogan, "Taking Care of Business."

The campaign includes significant advertising and internal relations elements, as well as a new NASCAR sponsorship deal.

"It's a very integrated and comprehensive approach to announcing what we feel is a new brand positioning for the company," said Brian Levine, Office Depot's PR director.

?Taking Care of Business? was previously the company?s slogan from 1992-2001.

Office Depot is working with Edelman and Burson-Marsteller on different elements of the campaign. Edelman, which previously worked with the company on its Olympic sponsorship program, is handling the PR components of the NASCAR sponsorship through its New York and Chicago offices.

Peter Land, GM of Edelman's sports and entertainment practice, said the agency's history with NASCAR made it "very easy for us to pick up and run with the assignment on a fairly short notice."

Linda Recupero, Burson's brand marketing practice chair, said that her agency has been developing messaging and strategy for the "Taking Care of Business" brand repositioning campaign since last fall.

In order to energize its employees for the campaign, the company held a "launch day" at its headquarters in Florida. Workers were greeted with posters, banners, and a bag of office supplies festooned with the new slogan. Office Depot also updated both its Intranet and Internet sites to reflect its revamped image.

The company has also entered into a multi-year sponsorship agreement with NASCAR, which becomes its primary national sponsorship platform.

Levine said the decision was based on its research that indicated that 44% of NASCAR fans would switch to Office Depot if the company were a sponsor. The racing series was also selected because of its popularity among women and small business owners, who are the core of Office Depot's customer base. The company will announce its NEXTEL Cup car sponsorship within the next two weeks, Levine said.